Monday, January 26, 2015

What a Year!

I can't believe it has been a WHOLE YEAR since I've posted on my blog! I have some pretty good excuses though, I swear! I got married to a wonderful man from Peru (not only does he help me improve my Spanish, but he is also a talented computer engineer and helps me with all things techy!), went on a honeymoon to San Francisco, and bought our first house. 2014 was full of moving, wedding planning, and home improvement for me! I am now a pro at throwing an affordable wedding, so you can ask me for tips. =)


As for teaching, I am still teaching and enjoying 2nd grade - I am just more busy, working on my house and learning to cook, now that I have a husband to feed. :) I'm also still loving Zumba and still going 3-5 times a week! I've been slightly obsessed with my new FitBit Charge HR (an upgrade from my old Polar watch) and new favorite cookbook, so those keep me motivated to stay healthy. :) 

With all that has been going on, the time I have to create my own teaching materials has definitely dwindled to school breaks only. My latest education-related obsessions are science and interactive notebooks. My kids enjoy them, I enjoy them - it's a win-win! Over the winter break, I had major inspiration to dig into the Next Generation Science Standards for 2nd grade, since they were kind of thrown at us last spring and I had no time to do anything with them. I wanted to make sure I covered all of the NGSS this year but wasn't finding any materials I liked, so I spent a week of my break creating my own - just like old times! Here is the result: 4 mini-books covering all of the NGSS. 
     

     
Each book took me roughly 8-9 hours to complete. My husband was amazed at how much time I spent working on them. This was his first time witnessing me in my full-on teacher creation mode. :)

My friend Myranda, whom I've known for many years, has been inspired to start her own blog about teaching 5th grade and just started her journey selling on TpT. Her blog and store are full of fantastic resources for teaching math to 5th graders!